‘Platform-ised’ work? The case of neo-craft work

Abstract

In relation to work, the term ‘platformisation’ has gained popularity to indicate the various ways in which a digital platform gets to mediate, organise, intervene in, or otherwise facilitate some work activity. Yet, the intervention of digital platforms into work today increasingly involves activities that are not immediately related to the digital sphere, where different kinds of platforms have become part and parcel of the cultures and practices of work. There is a necessity, in other words, to develop a clearer framework to identify what it means when work activity gets to be ‘platform- ised’, the conditions under which this takes place, and what the main implications are deriving from this process. Using the case of ‘neo-craft’ work in the European Union, we propose and illustrate a theoretical conceptualisation of platform- ised work, critically discussing the distinctiveness of this process and highlighting its key features.